SAN DIEGO -- Treating allergic rhinitis with immunotherapy appeared to reduce the risk of chronic upper respiratory conditions, a Medicaid study showed.

SAN DIEGO -- Treating allergic rhinitis with immunotherapy appeared to reduce the risk of chronic upper respiratory conditions, a Medicaid study showed.

Treatment for those conditions was three-fold more likely to decline in the 18 months after immunotherapy than in matched patients treated for rhinitis pharmacologically or otherwise (down 6% versus 2%, P<0.0001), Cheryl Hankin, PhD, of the health research company BioMedEcon in Moss Beach, Calif., and colleagues found.

The results weren't unexpected but should help in counseling patients considering immunotherapy for allergic rhinitis, Theodore M. Freeman, MD, an allergist in private practice in San Antonio, Texas, told MedPage Today.

"This is absolutely confirming what I hear from my patients," he said."Now with this data, I can say it's documented that you're going to reduce the number of infections you're going to get and things like that."

Another implication is validating immunotherapy as important for allergic rhinitis, Hankin told reporters at a press conference.

"The public health and public policy message is that allergic rhinitis is not just a nuisance disease but is a precursor for the development of serious and extremely expensive respiratory disease," she said, noting that it also adds impetus to fast referral from primary care.

The new analysis included 4,967 patients who had immunotherapy (likely almost all subcutaneous, given that the oral form isn't reimbursed) for newly diagnosed allergic rhinitis, and an equal group of matched allergic rhinitis patients who didn't get that treatment.

The likelihood of a decline in use of outpatient services over 18 months after immunotherapy versus controls was:

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